KL Rahul Holds Nerve as India Edge Past New Zealand to Take 1–0 ODI Series Lead

KL Rahul finished the match in style. The game became much closer than India expected, but the wicketkeeper-batter stayed calm and won it for his team with one over left. India now lead the three-match series 1–0. The Men in Blue were cruising at one point, with top 4 batters scoring runs for fun, but Kyle Jamieson turned the game on its head out of nowhere. However, the hosts had enough strength in them to get off to a winning start in the series opener.

Earlier in the game, India won the toss and opted to bowl first. Devon Conway (56 off 67) and Henry Nicholls (62 off 69) gave the Kiwis a solid start, adding 117 runs for the first wicket and scoring respective half-centuries. Nicholls got two lives when Kuldeep Yadav dropped him off Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar spilt him off his own bowling at different times.

Rana came back and struck twice in quick succession in his second spell, sending back both set New Zealand openers before Mohammed Siraj got rid of Will Young, who bagged another low score in the ODIs.

KL Rahul’s calm finish seals tense win as India take 1–0 lead against New Zealand

New Zealand lost wickets at regular intervals with the likes of Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Hay and Michael Bracewell getting into the double figures, but failing to cross the 20-run mark. Zak Foulkes could score only one.

Despite running out of partners, Daryl Mitchell (84 off 71) continued his dream run against India and notched up a classy half-century, before Prasidh Krishna trapped him in front in the 48th over. Kristian Clarke (24* off 17) and Kyle Jamieson (8* off 8) scored some useful runs down the order and took the score to 300/8 in 50 overs. For India, Siraj, Rana and Prasidh picked up two wickets each, while Kuldeep Yadav took a wicket.

In reply, India got off to a fine start, with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill adding 39 for the first wicket. Rohit (26 off 29) was taken care of by Kyle Jamieson inside the powerplay, before Virat Kohli came out all guns blazing and added an 118-run second-wicket partnership to take firm control of the proceedings.

Gill (56 off 71) was playing a second fiddle and hit a half-century, while Kohli cruised to 93 off 91 balls, before Jamieson came back into the attack and silenced the crowd, dismissing the Indian number 3 in the 90s. Kohli and Shreyas Iyer added 77 runs for the third wicket, but once Kohli fell in the 39th over, there was a sudden shift in the momentum. Jamieson picked up 3 wickets in the spell and finished with 4/41.

India were in trouble at 242/5. Harshit Rana was sent ahead of Washington Sundar, who was injured and scored a valuable 29 off 23 balls in an innings that had a few moments of luck involved in it. With 18 needing off the last three overs and Sundar managing only to run singles, KL Rahul and the Tamil Nadu all-rounder held their nerves to finish things off with 6 balls remaining. Rahul (29* off 21) hit 4,4, and 6 against the debutant Clarke to wrap up the night.